Coaches to get P5M in incentives

The RP team coaches are set to receive about P5 million in incentives for steering their respective athletes to gold, silver and bronze medal performances in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand last December.

After months of delay, Philippine Sports Commission chair William “Butch” Ramirez yesterday said the Philippine Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) will release the amount – P4,854,560 – this weekend as mandated by Republic Act 9064 or the athletes and coaches incentives act.

“This has been long overdue, I’m glad the coaches will be receiving their incentives soon,” Ramirez said.

However, he clarified that the delay was caused by some NSAs, which had failed to submit their list of coaches in time.

Last week, differently-abled athletes likewise received their incentives with table tennis star Josephine Medina receiving a little over P83,000 after snaring five gold medals in the fourth ASEAN Para Games, also in Thailand.

The athletes, for their part, received their bonuses amounting to over P10 million as early as December after the Philippines placed sixth overall in the SEA Games, the country’s worst ever in the history of the biennial meet.

As mandated by RA 9064, coaches duly certified by their respective NSAs will receive half of the amount the SEAG  medal winners had received.

That means gold medal winning coaches will be given P50,000 while silver and bronze medalists will receive P25,000 and P10,000, respectively. – Joey Villar